271 
Mr. Pilsbry’s work treats only of the Hndodontide and 
Helicide, but a companion volume dealing with the other families 
is promised. To bring this important work more fully to the 
notice of malacological students in Australia, I have prepared a 
full synopsis of the genera belonging to the Australian fauna 
which are comprised in the two families. Without any desire to 
be critical, I may mention that the limits of the various genera 
and their mutual relationships may need to be moditied with our 
increasing knowledge of the anatomy of the various species; as 
it should not be forgotten that more than half of our species are 
generically located by conchological characters only. The accep- 
tance of Pilsbry’s classification opens to us a wide and interesting 
tield of research which is within the reach of each worker, and 
desiderrated knowledge actually awaits him at his own door. 
Should any coilector, however, think himself unprepared to in- 
vestigate the anatomy of any snail, he would render good service 
to malacological science by forwarding his material to Mr. Charles 
Hedley, of the Australian Museum, Sydney—to whom Mr. 
Pilsbry acknowledges his great indebtedness in this connection. 
Moreover, this classification, which expresses the best of our ideas 
of the relationships of genera and species, provides reliable data 
for the correlation of local faunsze, and for the solution of various 
problems connected with geographical distribution and origin. 
The Famity ENpopontip# is intermediate between Zonitide 
and /Helicide in its characters, but is of more primitive origin 
than either, as indicated by its unspecialised jaw, teeth, genitalia, 
and shell; indeed, the oldest land-snail, Zonites priscus of the 
Coal Measures of Nova Scotia, is considered by Pilsbry as a 
probable member of the genus Pyramidula, The family has a 
world-wide range, though very scarce in the tropics. Its present 
headquarters are in Austro-Polynesia, which furnish 333 of a 
total of 523 species. Australia and Tasmania possess 78 species 
distributed in the following genera :—Laoma 9, Flammulina 22, 
Endodonta 47. 
The Famity Heticipa is divided by Pilsbry into five groups, 
which, arranged in their numerical order, differ from one another 
in the increasing complexity of the genital organs. Tribe 1, 
ProroGona, with genitalia of the lowest type, is not represented 
in Australia. Tribe 2, Macroocona, with simple genitalia, but 
the vas deferens has an epiphallus, contains six Australian and 
Tasmanian species. Three belong to the monotypic genera 
Pedinogyra, Anoglypta, and Caryodes; and three to Panda, 
which is exclusively Australian. <A still further advance is made 
in Tribe 4, EpipHALLoGona, the genital system of which has an 
epiphallus and flagellum on the penis; but there is no dart sack 
or other accessory appendages on the female side as in the highest 
